Newcomers to the world of hospitality business ownership, Claire Ilardi-Crow and Caroline Baldwin have taken the leap into the industry with a passion project to establish a new members club model. Hospitality Interiors met the two friends for a guided site tour of what will soon be opened up to the local community as The Dally.
I met Claire Ilardi-Crow and Caroline Baldwin at the old Hare and Hound (most recently known as Jack’s Bar) in Islington, London, at the beginning of January to have a nosey around the building set to become The Dally – a fun new member’s club for the local community.
“So many people have fond memories of falling out of these doors after a good night out or party!” Says Caroline. “We’ve always had our eye on this place, and luckily it became available just at the time we were looking.”
“One of the first times I went out with Claire, she actually dragged me in here in one of its previous incarnations. She was insistent I had to see the place and I remember we ran upstairs to take a look at all the rooms – not that we were allowed to be up there and eventually got hustled back downstairs by the staff, but it just stuck in our minds, and we were so pleased to be able to get our hands on it.”
Caroline has a background in shipping and logistics with her career placing her in Africa for a number of years, while Claire’s career was deep rooted in hospitality. The friends first met at the school gates in 2016 whilst collecting their children and hit it off straight away. “We got talking about the way people meet each other and were trying to figure out how those chance friendships would happen if people didn’t have children to wait for at the school gates or an office with co-workers,” says Claire. “When the pandemic hit, this topic became even more relevant.”
“We’ve been talking about the need for Islington to have its own members club for seven years now!” Claire laughs. “I was born into restaurants and hotels so I’m very much from a hospitality background, I used to have my own consultancy and am in the business of bringing people together – plus I’m incredibly nosey, which helps!”
Jack’s Bar came up just as Claire and Caroline had turned down another venue, so they leapt at the chance to take the lease on the property they’d always had their eye on. “The process took forever, and actually we’ve only had the keys for a month so everything still feels very new,” says Caroline. “The builders have been in to strip everything out as it was actually in a bit of a state.” “Understatement!” Adds Claire. “Yes! But it’s all been stripped so now the proper work can start.”
Incredibly, they say they’re aiming for this spring to have completed the works and open the doors to the neighbourhood. I’m stunned looking around the empty shell of a building trying to comprehend how so much work in such a short space of time is achievable. The bare bones are there – and the building has beautiful period features clinging on for dear life – but with pretty much everything needing doing (including removing the old Elvis posters and live music flyers from the walls), I wonder if their plans for a spring opening are maybe a little ambitious.
“We have an excellent team,” Claire says confidently. “We have a great local design team as well – Busby Webb – and they’re really on board with the vision for this place.”
“A lot of what we’re doing really is cosmetic, which is why it shouldn’t take too long,” says Caroline.
They give me the grand tour, starting on ground level in what will be the ‘Drawing Room’, where currently the remnants of the old bar remain, but beautiful features like the huge paned glass windows (which I’m told throw natural daylight on every surface when they’re not boarded up), a period fireplace, and an unusual roof light at the back end of the space all trigger the imagination for what this place could be.
“The idea is that this will be a relaxing space during the day for members to come and do a bit of work and enjoy a bite to eat and then in the evening the lights will go down and the bar will open for drinks. We have an amazing local community and independent businesses on our doorstep, so we want to work with as many of those as possible,” says Claire. “We’ve spoken to a lot of people already and there’s a genuine buzz and excitement when we tell people what we’re doing.”
With no planning restrictions other than the windows and Hare and Hound plaque on the building’s facade, Caroline and Claire have pretty much had free rein on the renovations. They show me a number of mood boards lined up on the old bar with swatches of paint and fabric samples, that show a sultry colour palette of rich jewel-tones. “Everything will be super relaxed though,” Claire emphasises. “We don’t want anyone feeling uncomfortable or as though they’re in a showroom.”
Caroline tells me her and Claire have always been quite aligned in their thoughts for colour scheme and general styling. “We have always been on the same page so when we spoke to the design team and then showed them the space and they could see all the features for themselves it was really easy to build on our ideas.”
We climb the stairs to the first floor to take a look at the room that will become the restaurant with enough space for 30 covers. A lovely, bright room, there are large sash windows along the length of one side and an interesting painted mural on the other. The plan here is to create a warm and inviting space in earthy tones with a sage panelled backdrop and dark wood furniture. “We’re bringing back panelling on all the walls,” says Claire, “and we’re hoping to have lots of artwork displayed by local artists and art students.”
Through a hallway we enter the cocktail bar – looking anything but with a fireplace in one corner and a shower cubicle in the other! The mood board shows that eventually this space will have a lovely feminine palette with soft blush pinks and warm off-whites highlighted with muted blues and greens and botanical wallpaper featured behind the bar area.
Another staircase up to the second floor takes you to a surprising space unlike the rest of the building where bear brick walls support a wood-beamed pitched ceiling – complete with gigantic disco-ball-come-chandelier-arrangement (sadly not staying). This room will become ‘The Parlour’ which will be used for private hire and a programme of events to include things like discussion sessions, music and art classes. The bare brick is set to stay (hurrah!), and banquette seating will be installed along one end of the room with a rose pink and navy palette.
“Design is important in Islington – we’re on the doorstep of Clerkenwell and many of our members will have beautifully designed homes. It’s not about doing it for design’s sake, it’s such a beautiful building and therefor deserves a beautiful design and we want it to feel like a home from home,” says Caroline.
With so many interiors shops and brands on their doorstep, they tell me they intend to source as many materials for the design as possible locally, including collections from House of Hackney and Abigail Ahern. “We’ve come up with designs for a place we’d like to spend time in and we’re hoping everyone else will feel the same,” says Claire.
Caroline tells me they’ve already received a good number of applications for membership, “We’ve had a really broad range of people apply – from people in their 20s right up to their 80s.”
“We’re very inclusive in nature,” adds Claire, “so it was important to us to encourage that in our membership process. We want to have members based on their personality rather than their profession.”
“We haven’t sat down to draft out a set criteria, we really just wanted to see there being some sort of connection to Islington.” Caroline explains. “Most people live here, but some simply work here. Obviously we want people in the club but it’s also about sharing what’s going on in and around the neighbourhood. It’s about sharing knowledge and bringing the community together. We wanted something less transient than a bar or restaurant, The Dally will feel more like the old social clubs you used to have where you could go after a rough day and know you’ll find a friendly face.”
I’m excited at the prospect of seeing the finished article, and have invited myself back for cheeky cocktail, but even more exciting are Claire and Caroline’s ambitions to branch into other areas of London and further afield. “Assuming it works here in Islington, we’d very much like to do the same thing in South London – in Richmond or Dulwich, we haven’t decided yet, but areas that already have their own communities. What we won’t be doing is rolling out identikit clubs, each one will be very individual. We might even look at areas outside of London – Northumberland, Devon…” “Sussex?” I ask hopefully! Watch this space.
